


3rd Day of Winter - Wrapping Things Up

by unjaundiced



Series: Winter Spirits [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: 25 Days of Christmas, 25 Days of Fic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Everyone Is Alive, Family Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, Kid Hatake Kakashi, Kid Umino Iruka
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-04
Updated: 2015-12-04
Packaged: 2018-05-04 20:10:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5347031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unjaundiced/pseuds/unjaundiced
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's time to wrap presents. Kakashi helps. Iruka does not.<br/>Takes place the year after <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/5339876">Snowflakes</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	3rd Day of Winter - Wrapping Things Up

**Author's Note:**

> Kigurumi - A onesie that usually looks like an animal or animated character
> 
> Kun - An honourific generally used for males and occasionally female friends

Sakumo sat on a rug made colorful by streamers of ribbon coming undone from their rolls, curled ends twisting in and amongst each other. Bright rolls of paper lay strewn across the living room floor from where he'd given up on keeping them propped up against the sofa where a small body lay sleeping. A multitude of boxes filled with toys were stacked around him and he looked slightly stumped.

Kakashi sat just off to his side, carefully turning a name tag in his chubby fingers, mouth moving as he worked out the characters on it. He looked at his father and held out the piece of paper.

“Amiya Haneko,” he declared.

“Thank you, Kakashi-kun,” Sakumo took the bell-shaped tag from the toddler and carefully affixed it to a box covered with reindeer paper. He set the box aside and unrolled the next length of paper.

Kakashi reached into the bag full of randomly shaped name tags and drew one out. He showed it to his father who nodded before he turned it around and studied the characters written on it.

Sakumo sighed and rolled his shoulders, neck cracking with the motion. A box with a dump truck in it went on the paper and he began the awkward motion of measuring, silently cursing the irregular sizes of the boxes that made using pre-cut sheets an impossibility.

Every year, the Paediatrics Department compiled a list of children who would be spending Christmas in the hospital and names were drawn to see who would purchase Secret Santa gifts for them all. This year, Nanori, the Paediatrics Director, decided she wanted to wrap all the presents herself and had all the Secret Santas deliver their gifts to their house, the names of the recipients written on sticky notes affixed to the gifts.

Of course she had gone off with Kohari to do some girly thing and left Sakumo with the two boys. Thankfully Iruka had already been asleep when Kohari had dropped him off so Sakumo hadn't really have to worry too much. Kakashi was quite serious for a 2-year-old and was fascinated with words since he'd started to read and was happy to handle the name tag portion of the gift wrapping.

“Ugh, this sucks,” Sakumo mumbled, fumbling with the tape with one hand as he tried to keep the ends of the paper together at the middle seam. Tiny hands came to rest on the seam next to his finger and he looked up to meet the dark blue eyes of his son.

“Thank you, Kakashi-kun,” he smiled. Kakashi nodded and looked at his hands with intense concentration.

Sakumo almost taped over one of Kakashi's fingers and was treated to a sloe-eyed look of disbelief. He was annoyed at feeling shamed by a toddler and thought to himself, not for the first time, that Kakashi was such an old man.

He had better luck folding the sides, but Kakashi was just a little better, even with his clumsy fingers. He couldn't quite manage a ribbon bow so he taped strips of ribbon across the box and left them bare. His only saving grace was that he had self-adhesive pre-made ribbons at the ready which he freely applied without shame.

A tiny hand tugged his finger and he looked down.

“Amuro Kenji,” Kakashi said, holding out a teddy bear-shaped name tag.

“Thank you, Kakashi-kun,” he said solemnly, peeling the sticky back off the sticker and putting it under one of the Christmas trees on the paper.

Kakashi nodded once and fished out another name tag. A soft sound made him drop it. The soft sound came again and Kakashi heaved himself to his feet and toddled to the couch on wobbly knees. He carefully stood up on his toes and peered at the widely yawning mouth presented to him. He poked his finger inside.

“Chomp!” Iruka shouted, giggling as Kakashi yanked his hand back.

“Don't bite me,” Kakashi grumbled, wiping his hand on his pants leg.

Iruka sat up, eyes bright from sleep. He wore a polar bear kigurumi this time, soft claws black against the white of his kicking feet. He bounced lightly and rolled off the couch, tiptoeing to reach the floor.

“Hello, Iruka-kun,” Sakumo greeted, sighing internally at the interruption. Kakashi could never concentrate properly when Iruka was both around and awake.

“What you do?” Iruka asked, toddling over to the pile of ribbons.

“I'm wrapping gifts,” Sakumo replied absently, taking a boxed doll off the stack of toys. Suddenly a spool of ribbon shot across his leg and his head snapped up.

Iruka was busy flinging the rolls of ribbon across the floor, holding onto their loose tails and shaking them at the same time. Kakashi stood next to him watching him curiously.

“No! Oh gods, what are you–” Sakumo grabbed at the spools as they rolled past him, feeling control slipping away.

Iruka laughed and threw another one before Sakumo gave up and confiscated all the ribbon. Iruka froze and stared at him with huge eyes, lower lip wibbling. Sakumo's eyes narrowed and he stared down the brunet before Kakashi wobbled his way in front of his friend, awkwardly putting his arms around Iruka.

“No good, Iruka,” he said, shaking his head emphatically. “Don't do it!”

“'kay,” Iruka caved immediately.

Kakashi gave him a self-adhesive ribbon to play with and showed him how the paper peeled away from the sticky part. Iruka's chubby fingers couldn't really manage the complex thing so Kakashi peeled one for him. Iruka tried to stick the ribbon to his tongue and made a face at the taste.

“Don't eat that!” Sakumo yelped, taking the ribbon out of Iruka's mouth.

“Yucky,” Iruka declared, planting a yellow ribbon on Sakumo's knee.

“You don't eat it,” he mumbled. “It's for the presents.”

Iruka ignored him and yanked on a roll of paper. Sakumo sighed heavily as it unrolled and ran across the floor.

Kakashi tugged on his sleeve and held out a train-shaped name tag bearing the name of Namikaze Minato.

“Thank you, Kakashi-kun,” Sakumo mumbled helplessly.

He left the two children with paper scraps and empty cardboard rolls to play with while he went back to wrapping presents. If he had more experience with toddlers and small children in general, he would have never done such a thing.

 

“Yatta! Done!” Sakumo cried, stretching towards the ceiling. He paused as he realized he hadn't heard much noise from the boys in a while and looked around curiously.

Jagged strips of paper hung from various places on the wall and from the face of the television like a beard, stuck with tiny bits of tape. A colorful lump lay near the Christmas tree Nanori insisted on having. Sakumo crawled up to it and grinned mischievously before knee-walking to the cabinet where Nanori kept a digital camera.

Later in the week, a Christmas picture postcard would be sent to the family and friends of the Uminos and the Hatakes of two little boys bound in bright wrapping paper scraps and with ribbons pasted to their faces, sleeping together halfway in a big box under a brightly-lit Christmas tree.

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally posted on Livejournal in 2011 as part of the annual 12 or 25 Days of Christmas challenge. The story takes place by years and utilises Japanese honourifics as a necessity. I tried to use canonical names wherever possible and created original character names as needed.
> 
> Due to the conditions at the time, the writing is a bit clunky but will largely remain unedited.


End file.
